Attachments
More than 1.5 million people are internally displaced (IDPs) in the country, mainly due to conflict and drought. The majority are hosted in the Somali National Regional State.
The recent clashes in the border areas of the Oromiya and Somali regions have inflated the number of IDPs, impacting access to the already limited protection services available.
IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrices (DTM) show an increasing trend of displacement across the country, calling for planning durable solutions alongside emergency assistance.
Working with Partners
- The Protection Cluster currently has more than 20 members working for the protection of internally displaced persons. It coordinates with its Child Protection/Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (CP/GBV) Sub-Cluster on a regular basis. It also participates in various coordination platforms, including the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG), Ethiopian Humanitarian Country Team (EHCT), Disaster Risk Management Technical Working Group and other Cluster meetings to make sure humanitarian response is driven by the centrality of protection.
Main Activities
Protection Mobile Teams
- The Protection Cluster established mobile protection teams in the Somali Region using a 1 million USD funding made available by the Ethiopian Humanitarian Funds for protection response in the first half of 2017. This has enabled Oxfam and DRC to establish seven mobile teams in the Somali Region which have become operational. Through additional funding from EHF, three more mobile teams will be launched in the Oromiya Region by IRC, HelpAge International and Humanity and Inclusion. The mobile teams conduct protection monitoring, explore and ensure inter-sectoral linkages and provide community based response. Some of the protection concerns identified by the mobile teams in IDP sites in Dollo Ado and Jarar Zones of the Somali Region include, lack of basic and specialized services, absence of food distribution for up to four months, lack of information for IDPs on services available and absence of meaningful access to services. The identified needs and gaps are relayed to the concerned government and humanitarian partners so that the necessary response is undertaken. Protection mainstreaming efforts in other sectors are on-going to see to it services are meaningful and accessible.
Protection Mainstreaming
- The Protection Cluster works to mainstream protection through its Protection Focal Persons in other Clusters apart from the series of protection mainstreaming trainings it conducts. Accordingly, a training session was conducted earlier in the year for the Protection Focal Persons to discuss on their roles and responsibilities and to agree on their Terms of Reference. The training was also an opportunity to support the focal persons develop an initial work plan to mainstream protection within their clusters. A refresher workshop was conducted for the focal persons on 25 October 2017 to take stock of progress made in terms of identifying protection concerns and to explore ways of improving the approach that would support the protection mainstreaming objective.
Coordination
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A Sub-national Protection Cluster has been established in the Somali Region in September 2017. This platform, which will be co-chaired by the regional Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau and UNHCR, will have a very important role of coordinating the protection response on the ground in collaboration with partners and the Protection Mobile Teams in the Region.
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The Protection Cluster has been involved in the preparation of a joint operational plan for the ongoing response to the IDP situation in the Somali Region. This plan, which incorporated elements from existing plans, is expected to serve as a benchmark for international partners and the Regional government to scale up and monitor ongoing response.
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The Protection Cluster has been chairing the ‘Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Working Group’ that led the process of a PSEA Strategy development endorsed by the Ethiopian Humanitarian Country Team (EHCT) and the establishment of the PSEA Network for the implementation of the strategy. The Working Group has handed over its work to the Humanitarian Coordinator’s Office to lead the PSEA Network.
Humanitarian Requirements Document (HRD) Preparation
- The Protection Cluster has participated in the Meher assessments that took place from second half of November to early December 2017 in the pastoral and cropping areas of Ethiopia. Protection concerns have been identified that helped understand the required response and the corresponding budget that will be reflected in the 2018 HRD. The findings also contributed for the classification of hotspot locations for the Protection Cluster.
Advocacy for the Ratification of the Kampala Convention
- UNHCR as a leader of the Protection Cluster is engaged in an on-going consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support efforts undertaken by the Government of Ethiopia for the ratification of the Kampala Convention.
UNHCR has offered to provide technical and financial assistance to help facilitate the translation of the convention into main vernaculars of the country and the organization of relevant workshops.